Key events
More from Arteta. On-loan keeper David Raya is ineligible to feature against his parent club, so assuming Aaron Ramsdale makes it through the warm-up unscathed, he’ll rack up his sixth league start of the campaign.
Despite the Englishman playing second fiddle to Raya in the league, Arteta is happy to have him. “The connection on a personal level goes two ways pretty much and I’m really happy that we made the call as a club to sign him,” he said. “It was very controversial to start with but we wanted to change his career in a powerful way and we’re really happy.”
Of his side’s form, Arteta added: “It’s great because obviously it shows the quality and the way that the team is showing. It shows the way we’re scoring the goals as well, not only the manner but the personnel as well which is a really positive thing to see. Defensively we’re conceding very little too so those two things together are powerful to get results, consistency and we want more.”
Mikel Arteta has been named as February’s Premier League manager of the month. Last month the Gunners managed four straight league wins, with an aggregate score of 18-2. They beat Liverpool 3-1 in that run and could overhaul Jürgen Klopp’s side for at least a day with victory tomorrow.
Speaking as he prepares his side to host Brentford, Arteta said: “It’s a great honour in this league to get recognised in this way so I want to say thank you to the team and the staff for always being supportive and making this happen.”
Speaking of Howe, a bit more from the Newcastle manager. He was asked about Anthony Gordon’s England prospects …
I don’t know how close he is – that’s for Gareth [Southgate] to talk about, not me. But his form this season has been consistent and I think that is what Gareth will be looking for, consistent performances above a certain level.
He will be looking for goals and assists from his wingers, and he’s delivered that as well. I think he’s in a really good place.
I would say to him, don’t focus on England, focus on your club form. Keep doing the right things with us and everything else will take care of itself.
Anthony has done that and I don’t think he’s been distracted at any time. He’s kept looking at the short term and is very motivated to play every minute of every game, which I love about him. His career is in a good place.”
Those clicking in for important words from Premier League managers … Eddie Howe was today’s outlier, speaking in early morn GMT. Microphones and dictaphones elsewhere will be hot from circa 1pm.
Many thanks John, good day readers. I absolutely promise I won’t make my stint all about me, but six and a bit years ago I took part in something called The Famous Canadian Beer Run. It was less messy than it sounds, but ever since then there’s a splendid, small-brewery, ruby-coloured drop I’ve forgotten the name of that I wearily drank some of/sloshed down my front at the end. If anyone has any idea what it might have been, see above for contact details.
This is a slightly roundabout way of me introducing Joseph Lowery’s early-season MLS power rankings. To be fair the run was in the shadow of Toronto FC’s BMO Field home …
That’s my morning run done, now to hand over to the excellent Stuart Goodwin.
With international week looming in a fortnight, Iceland’s Euro qualifier versus Israel comes into sharp focus. Iceland’s manager, Åge Hareide, the Norwegian who has also managed Denmark has had this to say.
Max Rushden on taking a battering from the critics. We attempted to redress the balance on the next pod. It wasn’t a great success.
Fancy some quiz action? It’s a tough one this week.
Sporting director transfer latest: there’s a lot of it about these days.
Fenway Sports Group’s principal owner, John W Henry, and president, Mike Gordon, were among the senior executives who held talks with Edwards about returning to the club he left in 2022. The 44-year-old, a consultant at the sports advisory business Ludonautics, is regarded by FSG as the ideal candidate to lead Liverpool’s transition when Klopp steps down after nine hugely successful years as manager this summer. However, the club’s owners will need to offer a more powerful role than sporting director to tempt Edwards back.
Edwards has rejected numerous approaches from clubs, including Chelsea, since ending a 10-year association with Liverpool and playing a key role in the club’s transformation under Klopp. He turned down an initial approach from FSG in January regarding resuming his career as Liverpool’s sporting director and is likely to want total control in a more far-reaching position, such as head of football operations, to accept the invitation to return.
Welch inducted into Hall of Fame
Rebecca Welch, the first woman to referee a Premier League match, is to be inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame.
The 40-year-old made history when she was selected to take charge of the Fulham v Burnley game on December 23. She was also the referee for the Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest fixture last month.
Welch will become the first female referee to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, with the museum confirming her induction on International Women’s Day.
“It’s quite overwhelming, I was very honoured to be asked,” Welch said. “My journey started 13 years ago and now here I am having refereed in one of the biggest leagues in the world, being inducted to the Hall of Fame alongside legends of the game, it doesn’t feel real to me. It’s great for young boys and young girls to see female representation at the top of the game because it makes them believe that they can be there as well.”
Newcastle will be without Kieran Trippier at Chelsea on Monday, and he will miss England duty, too. Eddie Howe has been speaking this morning: “We are running out of games and the season seems like it has gone so quickly, we are here now with minimal games left and we are trying to maximise on every game.
“We have a bit of form behind us and we are still trying to recapture our best performance levels. We have high expectations of ourselves and we are not where we want to be, but hopefully we can get back to 100% as quickly as possible.”
The big talking point for West Ham’s game at Freiburg was the penalty that never was.
One of Roberto de Zerbi’s pat responses is to point to the limitations and inexperience of his Brighton team. He did just that after that 4-0 loss to Roma.
“We played our game. We gave our best. Maybe our best now is this performance. I think Roma is much better in terms of experience to play this type of game and we suffer a lot. Too much I think.
“We are not used to playing this competition and today we paid everything. We paid [for] a squad not so long, we paid to play away in this stadium, we paid with too many injured players and for us, it is the first time so we have to improve.
“We have to progress and if we want to compete in this level, from the owner to the coach to the players we have to progress to reach one level higher.”
Salient plotlines as the 2024 campaign unfurls are the first full season of Lionel Messi in Miami, the controversial withdrawal of most MLS clubs from the US Open Cup and the use of replacement referees because of a labor dispute.
For the first of these, the league’s official channels very much have you covered. But fans watching MLS on Apple TV, which streams every match, would learn little about the other two newsworthy narratives. Which is just how the league wants it.
Great piece from Tom Dart on Apple TV as MLS Pravda.
Kelly Simmons has written a fine piece on the Women’s FA Cup. Perhaps best to use her tweet for her reasons for writing it.
I’ve written about the need for focus on the @AdobeWFACup
The last round of the men’s fa cup saw 4 live games on BBC/ITV and this weekend’s Women’s QFs sees none! ( one on bbc iPlayer)
Time for new thinking? https://t.co/uA0k07NdMS— Kelly Simmons OBE (@KellySimmo1) March 8, 2024
There is another world, to quote Morrissey. There is a better world. And that might just be the Championship, its rule run over by our expert in this large field, Ben Fisher.
There are issues of finance at hand there, too, of course.
Modern football, eh?
Just how poor are Liverpool compared to City?
Liverpool’s turnover was £594m.
Here’s our traditional curtain-raiser for the weekend’s action.
Some element of beef before the big one? Yeah, sort of, after Erling Haaland kissed off to a remark from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Trent, speaking to 442 mag: ““Looking back on this era, although [City] have won more titles than us and have probably been more successful, our trophies will mean more to us and our fan base because of the situations at both clubs financially.”
“How both clubs have built their teams and the manner in which we’ve done it, probably means more to our fans. It’s tough. We’re up against a machine that’s built to win — that’s the simplest way to describe City and their organisation.”
Haaland, speaking to Sky Sports: “nice feeling, I don’t think he knows exactly this feelings. So yeah, that is what I felt last season and it was quite nice. They can talk as much as they want, or he can talk as much as he wants. I don’t know why he does that, but I do not mind.”
Preamble
Morning, all. Klopp v Guardiola for the last time at Anfield. That’s about the size of it. This is massive. Plenty of that to come through the day, as well as buildup to the rest of the Premier League weekend. It could be a big one at either end of the table. Also, some reaction to last night’s Europa League: when is a penalty not a penalty, and just how did Roberto De Zerbi think his return to Italy went? Plus breaking news throughout the day from me and the team. Join me.
